Matthew 23:34-39
34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
“Good King Wenceslas look’d out, On the Feast of Stephen.” That’s today, the Feast of St. Stephen. The carol is based on a legend about a very real king, a good king (and he was called good because he showed care for his people). And the Feast of St. Stephen commemorates a very real servant of God, a martyred servant. Our very real and good king, Jesus Christ, foretold in our text today that there would be martyrs. In the church year we celebrate the festival of the birth of Christ, and then the very next day we commemorate the death of St. Stephen (and shortly thereafter the death of the holy innocents at the hands of Herod during the time of Jesus’ birth, which we’ll get to on Thursday this week).
No time to linger at length in festivals, the servant of God must be up and moving! Ready to do as the Master tasks us, and ready to endure what He sends our way. Jesus, our good and gracious King, goes before us to Jerusalem, lamenting the fact that the people of this world and even some of the so-called people of God, do not receive the message of God’s Law and Gospel as they should, and at times they also do not receive the messengers of God’s Word as they should. The result is what Jesus laments—at times there will be martyrs for the sake of the Gospel—“from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah,” and the blood of righteous Stephen, and the blood of all the saints martyred in the name of the Lord. These are all precious in God’s sight.
And precious in our sight, is Jesus our king—our good king who cares for His people—who lives the perfect life, fulfilling all of God’s holy requirements in His Law, and then goes to the cross to pay for all our sins. The sweetness of the Gospel then is ours as we receive it in faith—forgiveness of our sin, a new creation of Christ within us, and the promise of heaven. Gifts so precious that even the threat of martyrdom does not dissuade. “O Lord, gather your children under Your wings, for we are willing!”
Let us pray: Almighty God, grant that the new birth of your only Son in the flesh may set us free from our old slavery under sin; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
